Challenge Cécile: Jogging (2)

Day 1 to 15

On day 1, my first class was at 1 pm so I had the whole morning to go jogging. The weather was perfect: bright sun, blue sky. However, I spent the morning cleaning my apartment. I thought briefly about counting vacuuming and cleaning as sport but I could already hear Nick mocking me. During my classes in the afternoon, I kept on thinking about the jogging challenge, wondering if I should start the day after. I had to work until 6 pm so by the time I would be back home, it would be dark and cold outside. Why didn’t I go in the morning? At about 4, I decided to get a Twix bar so that I wouldn’t be too hungry in the evening and would have no excuse not to go. Besides, it is a common technique to reward yourself after achieving something so that your brain associate the effort with a positive feeling. I don’t think you’re supposed to reward yourself before and after the effort though. I started worrying about gaining weight during my challenge because of the multiple food rewards I was about to allow myself. At 7 pm, I was finally back home. It was as cold and dark as I expected and I was really tired from my lessons on top of that. I decided to stop thinking and start acting. I put on my running outfit and went outside. How empowering it is to just do what you decide to do! I felt great from the start just getting out.

Day 2 was almost a perfect day. I worked for 4.5 hours total which is the perfect amount of time for me to teach. I wrote for my blog, had a good nap, ate healthy food and met a friend for coffee. After my nap, the sun was still shining and I had one of the best runs ever. I ran for about an hour and felt great afterwards. Day 3 was pretty similar.

On day 4, I had my first yoga/meditation class in the evening. According to my rules, I don’t have to go jogging when I do another sport (yes, yoga is a sport). Running had felt so great the previous days that I decided to go anyway just before the yoga class. What a mistake: on day 5, I could barely move (yoga really is a sport, and a tiring one). My body was exhausted from all the newly imposed exercise. I forced myself to go running anyway because I told everyone on the internet that I was doing this stupid challenge. I went for the minimum requirements: 30 minutes at a very slow pace. At 9 that evening, I was so tired that I went to bed right away and fell deeply asleep.

I woke up still sore on day 6. My whole body was hurting and didn’t want to move anymore. Since I had gone running on day 4 when I wasn’t supposed to go (yoga), I decided to take a day off. Yeah, it is my challenge so I make the rules.

On day 7, I had planned to play badminton so I was relieved not having to go jogging. I talked to my friend Carine on the phone and she said: “It’s a good idea this challenge. I see it makes you do other sports just to avoid jogging!” She had a point.

The second week started as difficult as the first week. I couldn’t be bothered going in the morning again so had to go late after my afternoon classes. It was colder and darker than the week before because of the change of time; I could barely see anything in the dark woods. I still ran for 3o minutes- who said I was a slack-ass?

I had more time on day 9 and went for my daily run after a long nap in the afternoon. For the first time, I was actually happy to go! I ran for 60 minutes; it was awesome. Day 10 and 11 followed the same pattern. I began to feel the benefits of the challenge: better mood, appetite regulation and more energy… until I got sick.

I woke up on day 12 with a very sore throat. I called in sick at the school and stayed in bed for most of the day. At about 4 pm, I felt a bit better and needed to breathe fresh air. Mostly, I didn’t want to ruin my challenge. So I went for a long walk instead of a run. I had to do the same on day 13 and 14, I really was too sick to jog. But going on a 40 minute walk was really good. I would never go on a walk when I’m sick normally. So I decided to consider the challenge still ON (my challenge, my rules, remember?) Today, I’ll play badminton and tomorrow, day 16, back to jogging for 6 more days!